We are writing to you to express our deep concern regarding the violent clashes that occurred in the settlement of Nardaran, on the Absheron Peninsula, between a combined force of Ministry of Internal Affairs troops and police, and residents of the settlement during the evening and early morning of June 3-4. At least one resident was shot dead, and dozens more are said to have sustained gunshot wounds or injuries from police beatings. We are also aware of injuries police officers sustained, allegedly due to crowds throwing stones and Molotov cocktails. We ask you to establish, as a matter of priority, an independent investigation into the incident, and in particular into the use of lethal force. We further look to you to bring to justice those responsible for any indiscriminate or disproportionate use of force, which might have led to the killing and the injuries.
In the morning of June 3 eight Nardaran elders traveled to the office of the Sabunchi district procurator, at his request, to discuss and resolve an incident on May 7, when a group of seven Nardaran residents had pressed the local representative of the Sabunchi district authorities to resign. Upon arrival, the elders were arrested. One of them was reportedly taken to the town police department, and the other seven to an anti-banditry and anti-terrorism department. When news of the arrest reached Nardaran that evening, residents began a public demonstration in protest.
Dozens of Nardaran residents interviewed on June 4 by the Institute of Peace and Democracy and a separate group of four domestic human rights monitors from the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly of Azerbaijan, the Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law, and two other organizations are reported to have stated consistently that a large force of police and Ministry of Internal Affairs troops armed with truncheons and firearms entered the settlement on the morning of June 3. During the day they arrested the seven villagers who had in May called for the resignation of the district representative. In the evening, people had assembled on the main square to protest all of the arrests; police were deployed near the mosque. At 9:20 p.m. hand-to-hand fighting broke out between the police and members of the crowd who had taken exception to a policeman pushing an old man. The police fought with truncheons, and attempted to disperse the crowd, which responded by throwing stones at the police, and fighting with sticks. Ministry of Internal Affairs troops then opened fire with automatic weapons, killing Alikhasan Agaev, and wounding several others, including Gamid Mamedov, who was shot in the neck. The crowd still refused to disperse and instead grew, with many women and children among those who joined it. The stand-off continued for more than an hour until it broke into violence again, with the crowd throwing stones at the police, and the police alternately shooting into the air, into the ground, or into the crowd. The shooting is said to have lasted roughly an hour and reportedly caused dozens more injuries before the police withdrew from the settlement shortly after midnight, leaving behind several buses and cars in which they had arrived, which the crowd of residents overturned and set on fire.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the General Procuracy today released a statement on the Nardaran events, claiming that residents resisted police with a variety of weapons, including firearms. According to the statement: "As a result of the gunfire directed against the police, senior sergeant Metleb Melikov sustained a serious bullet wound in the thigh, and settlement resident Alikhasan Agaev died." The statement does not acknowledge any use of firearms by the police. For their part, Nardaran residents have strenuously denied using or owning any firearms whatsoever.
Domestic nongovernmental human rights activists who undertook field research in Nardaran on June 4 told Human Rights Watch that the settlement's buildings, trees, and walls bear a very large number of bullet holes, and that a similarly large number of spent cartridge cases of one particular type were found there. A military specialist of the Institute of Peace and Democracy reported them to be from 5.45mm caliber bullets appertaining to the AK-74 assault rifle, allegedly of a type with a displaced center of gravity.
It is important that you personally ensure the integrity of the independent investigation into the Nardaran events, as two reports suggest that local officials may be suppressing important forensic evidence. According to local human rights defenders, hospitals refused the request of relatives of the fifty-three-year-old Agaev, killed by a gunshot wound to the head, for his corpse to be kept in a morgue for forensic examination. Lacking other options, the relatives arranged his burial on June 4. In addition, the newspaper Zerkalo reported today that medical staff who treated Nardaran resident Gamid Mamedov for a bullet wound to his neck refused to give him any medical certification of his wound.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs-General Procuracy statement does not acknowledge any gunshot wounds other than the two quoted, nor does it mention the injuries that residents sustained as a result of police force. Yet many apparently have been wounded, some seriously. For example, twenty-two year-old Rasim Radjab oglu Alizade, is currently in intensive care in Sabunchi district hospital, with a wound to his shin. Moreover, law enforcement agencies may be preventing some of the wounded from receiving medical care. According to local human rights defenders, police beat and arrested some of those wounded in the incident, as well as those accompanying the wounded, which may have deterred other wounded people from leaving Nardaran to seek medical help. Domestic nongovernmental human rights defenders who have visited Nardaran since June 4 have reported that a number of residents who sustained gunshot wounds on the night of June 3-4 have not yet seen doctors. The Helsinki Citizens' Assembly of Azerbaijan told Human Rights Watch that on June 5 it had sent a group of medical personnel to Nardaran, but that police barred the group from entering the settlement, citing instructions from their superiors. We ask that you institute prompt measures to guarantee that the wounded receive adequate medical treatment, and also that essential medical supplies are allowed into Nardaran.
Since June 3, police arrested at least twenty Nardaran residents, and several others who left the settlment are missing, raising fears that they may be in incommunicado detention. According to local human rights activists and village elders, several male residents who tried to leave the settlement over the last three days have been detained at police checkpoints. Relatives of the detained or missing have not been informed of their whereabouts. Azerbaijani human rights organizations, as well as Human Rights Watch, have documented widespread police torture in Azerbaijan, which commonly has the aim of extracting confessions from detainees, particularly those in incommunicado detention. We call upon you to ensure that, in compliance with Azerbaijan's international obligations, all those detained in connection with the Nardaran events be immediately permitted access to their families, legal counsel, and a doctor of their choice, and are promptly either brought before a judicial authority on valid criminal charges or released.
Human Rights Watch is also concerned about your government's response to public protests about social issues. Together with other settlements and towns, both on the Absheron Peninsula and more widely in Azerbaijan, Nardaran suffers from extreme poverty, high rates of unemployment, and unreliable gas, electricity, and water supplies. In late 2000 and early 2001 protests about economic and social conditions in several towns across Azerbaijan, including Sheki, Djalilabad, Agdash, Nardaran, and also by handicapped Karabakh war veterans, were met with police beatings, arrests, and politicized trials. These repressive measures had a chilling effect on further such protest for nearly a year. When the residents of Nardaran announced that they would embark on renewed protests in January of this year, Human Rights Watch was encouraged that your administration at that time began a process of dialogue with them. The arrest of the village elders on June 3, however, indicates a return to repressive measures.
Human Rights Watch is also gravely concerned about the potential for renewed violence in Nardaran, which armed police and Interior Ministry troops reportedly have blockaded since their withdrawal from the settlement in the early hours of June 4. We call upon you to instruct law enforcement officers to refrain from any further use of lethal force. We also take this opportunity to remind you of the necessity of adherence to the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. These require law enforcement officials to refrain from the use of force and firearms unless such is unavoidable, and only "if other means remain ineffective or without any promise of achieving the intended result." The guidelines further require law enforcement officials not to use firearms against persons except in select circumstances to preserve life. In cases when use of force or firearms is unavoidable, law enforcement officials are to:
(a) exercise restraint, in such use and act in proportion to the seriousness of the offence and the legitimate objective to be achieved; (b) minimize damage and injury, and respect and preserve human life; (c) ensure that assistance and medical aid are rendered to any injured or affected persons at the earliest possible moment.
We thank you for your attention to the concerns raised in this letter.
Yours sincerely,
Elizabeth Andersen
Executive Director
Europe and Central Asia division
